Practice Direction 31B – PD 31B

The 53rd update to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) is effective from 1 October 2010 which also introduces changes to e-disclosure.
Note from the justice.gov.uk site;Part 31 Disclosure and Inspection of Documents and new PD31B Disclosure of Electronic Documents

A new Practice Direction is introduced to regulate the approach practitioners should take when considering material relevant to a case which is stored electronically. In particular it aims to focus the parties on the sources of electronic material and give guidance to those with less experience of dealing which such issues. This will apply to cases that are or likely to be allocated to the multi-track. The rule change supports the new Practice Direction by confirming that the questionnaire may be treated as a disclosed document. Note: Form N150 is amended to support this change.

A typographical error in PD31B (Question 8 in the questionnaire) has been identified.

Please Note: Question 8 in the questionnaire should read:
8.

If the answer to Question 6 or 7 is yes, state whether (a) attachments to e-mails (b) compressed files (c) embedded files and (d) imaged text will respond to your Keyword Searches or other automated search.